Gender more than ethnicity or disability influences the choice of a career in cardiothoracic surgery by United Kingdom medical students.

Objectives: Cardiothoracic surgery has reported poor equality, diversity, and inclusion amongst its faculty [1-3]. We explored how gender, ethnicity, and disability influence medical students' interest in cardiothoracic surgery as a career choice, as well as overall exposure to cardiothoracic surgery in the undergraduate curriculum.

Methods: We distributed a 26-item Google Forms online survey to student members of a medical education group from all 37 UK medical schools via social media.

The significance of metabolic disease in degenerative cervical myelopathy: a systematic review.

Introduction: Degenerative cervical myelopathy (DCM) is a form of chronic spinal cord injury, with a natural history of potential for progression over time. Whilst driven by mechanical stress on the spinal cord from degenerative and congenital pathology, the neurological phenotype of DCM is likely to be modified by multiple systemic factors. The role of metabolic factors is therefore of interest, particularly given that ischaemia is considered a key pathological mechanism of spinal cord injury.

Stabilization and tracking control of underactuated ball and beam system using metaheuristic optimization based TID-F and PIDD2-PI control schemes.

In this paper, we propose two different control strategies for the position control of the ball of the ball and beam system (BBS). The first control strategy uses the proportional integral derivative-second derivative with a proportional integrator PIDD2-PI. The second control strategy uses the tilt integral derivative with filter (TID-F).

The development and evaluation of a homemade laparoscopic endotrainer using the IDEAL framework and MISTELS scoring system: a pilot study.

Background: A prospective IDEAL stage 2a pilot study was carried out at a tertiary care center to evaluate the reliability of a homemade laparoscopic endotrainer, following the MISTEL and IDEAL framework guidelines.

Methods: The validated modified (MISTELS) score was used to test the reliability of a low-cost laparoscopic trainer with commonly found components built by surgeons. Basic household materials including a cellular phone (camera source), wifi (linking source) and freely available webcam apps were used for construction.

Robust and adaptive terrain classification and gait event detection system.

Real-time gait event detection (GED) system can be utilized for gait analysis and tracking fitness activities. GED for various types of terrains (e.g.